layer of a glass-and-gold pellet filled with
deuterium and tritium. As its hull exploded,
the pellet "blasted off" in rocketlike reac
tion-inward, not outward-fusing atoms
of fuel at the pressures and temperatures of a
star, which it became in miniature. The pel
let had absorbed power 20 times greater
than the output of all the nation's power
plants combined.
Even mightier than Omega are Novette at
Livermore and the carbon dioxide laser An
tares at Los Alamos National Laboratory in
The sound and image of future home
entertainment-and-educationsystems may
lie in the laser-recordeddisc. At a 3M
plant in Menomonie, Wisconsin, dust-free
clean rooms protect billions of data pits
in a light-refractingvideodisc. With an
affinity for the infinitesimal,the laser
promises to play a major role in the
onrushinginformation age.
New Mexico, other centers of laser-fusion
research. Ignition-a self-sustaining fusion
reaction-will likely not be seen before
1987, perhaps first at Livermore.
Beyond lie severe engineering challenges.
"Laser fusion probably won't be commer
cialized before the year 2020," McCrory told
me, "so, few U. S. firms are investing. We
may lose out to the Japanese."
SOT
JAPAN but the Soviet Union looms
as the greatest threat in the field of
laser weapons. For research on speed
of-light defense against missiles,
bombers, jet fighters, and ground forces, the
U. S. last year spent some 450 million dol
lars, the Soviet Union perhaps three times
that amount.
"What the Soviets get for their money is
hard to say," Robert Cooper told me in his
Pentagon office, where he heads the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency. Much
of this country's research funding for space
laser weapons comes from DARPA.
"The Soviets seem highly interested in la
sers for ground warfare," Cooper contin
ued. "And we suspect they have two lasers
able to damage low-orbiting satellites from
the earth. It would be no surprise if they put
a laser weapon in space this decade, but it
would probably be of little utility."
In tests an Air Force carbon dioxide laser
has downed air-to-air missiles, and the Pen
tagon is researching a ballistic-missile de
fense system including lasers that might cost
27 billion dollars by 1989. Yet open ques
tions and contrasting claims mark the de
bate about laser weapons. They deliver
inescapable destruction but must track and
stay on target over hundreds or thousands of
miles. Can they? Can lasers be coordinated
with other weapons in defenses of unprece
dented complexity? Might lasers slow the
arms race, or speed itin new directions? Will
we amend or abrogate arms treaties?
Across the Potomac from the Pentagon,
on Capitol Hill, I found Senator Malcolm
Wallop of Wyoming favoring a constellation
of laser battle stations in space. They might
blunt a nuclear attack, he points out.
"The laser offers to protect people and re
duce nuclear terror," says the congressional
backer of greater spending on space defense.
"Such a shield would preserve much of our
NationalGeographic, March 1984
362